The First Day

Well, today's the day! God had truly blessed me with an easy, stress-free exam last night, so I actually got some sleep. It's so great to know that so many people are praying for us and our trip. I am still in shock that I am actually in Mexico right now. We call our group the dysfunctional family: considering Ellie's maternal and crazy antics, my bum ankle, and Lauren, Betsy, and Kaitlin's hilarious personalities. I could not have asked for a better group though!

After all the setbacks, including lost hotel reservations ad having to get forms notarized again at the last minute, we were finally on our way this morning. On top of everything else, the weather was HORRIBLE. Tornadoes, torrential downpour, and any other way you could use to describe a monsoon. We were trying to transfer donations and put luggage into the car while trekking through a river in the street. But through the storm, before leaving Gainesville, we were already laughing a having a great time just being together. We had lunch at Moe's and then jammed to some Regaton on the way to the Orlando airport, just to get us in the Spanish vibe. We were beyond help when it came to our skills in the Spanish language. Everything seemed to be running smoothly until we got to the airport.

First, parking was just about impossible. After frustrations with that, we had to drag our luggage over to check-in, where there appeared to be no AC. It went by easy enough to get our bags weighed and x-rayed and then we were on our way. Next of course was getting though security... let's just say Ellie had liquids and I had a boot that happen to have metal in it. That was an adventure in itself, but we made it out alive and were finally at our gate. It was apparent that things were moving slowly as we boarded a little later than projected. Once we were on the plane we were stuck on the runway for about an hour, because of the weather. It was frustrating because of the fact that we had an hour and ten minutes to reach our connecting flight in Atlanta. At one point the pilot shut off the engines and said that all the north bound lanes were closed. I immediately started praying... I could think of nothing else to do. God was the only thing holding me together, and not but two minutes later the pilot announced that we would be flying out in seven minutes: PRAISE.

Seriously, God is so GOOD. So now we were going to get into Atlanta around the same time our Monterrey flight would be leaving! Frantically, as we got off the plane we checked to see if we had any hope. I had again been praying as soon as we landed for there to be a way. And luckily there was; our plane was now scheduled to depart at 7:15 pm. It was 6:55 pm, and we had to get across five concourses. The race was on. First, I left out early because of my ankle, but then I ended up going to the wrong gate because I didn't realize they had changed it from our original. When I called Kaitlin, she assured me it was OK, and they hadn't even started boarding the plane. I had never moved so fast in my life for being in the boot. I'm sure it was a sight to see. Somehow everything came together, however ridiculous it all seemed. We had time to get dinner, go to the bathroom, and there was no worry that our luggage would get lost.

We made it to the airport and realized that we were now the minority. It was a strange feeling. Once we got our luggage we had to find someone who could help us get to our hotel. Luckily a woman had the number for the hotel and the Courtyard Marriott van picked us up about ten minutes later. We jumped in with another woman who was from Chicago and shared with her what we would be doing for our spring break. Once at the hotel we got settled into our rooms, sent out some check-in emails to family and friends and then decided to go to the 7-eleven down the street. We started a new love affair with Coka light, 2.5 liter drinks, and pesos. We hung out in Betsy, Lauren and my room, watched a little TV, and enjoyed some sour-patch kids. Sometime around 1 am we decided to go to bed.

It still blows my mind that I am now in Mexico, and I cannot fathom what this week has to hold! I pray for God to prepare my heart, and so far we have had to catch a lot of curve balls. It has definitely be worth it though. I've grown accustom to my God with no definition, standard, or expectations. I cannot wait to love on todos los ninos y ayudar la gente de Mexico. We forget how lucky we are in the States, I am so ready to leave what I know, and to step into the unknown and uncomfortable. God has already challenged me in this one day of travel, but there's no telling what else He has in store.

"Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn." -Isaiah 60:3

-k10